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After you get cut by something sharp or burned by something hot is the pain you feel really caused by the brain or is there more to the story?

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Well obviously there are sensory nerve impulses that are fed to the brain and the brain interprets these as what we call pain. Without the sensory impulses there would be no pain, so clearly it can't be said to be "caused" by the brain. But it seems to be a big subject, on which I am not at all expert.

After you get cut by something sharp or burned by something hot is the pain you feel really caused by the brain or is there more to the story?

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\Does the brain experience Pain or does it interprets the pulses from the ganglion ?
I believe the first impulse goes to the ganglion , than it is transmitted via spinal cord to the brain , but the first involuntary retraction stimulus might be local.

originIn a democracy you deserve the leaders you elect.Valued Senior Member

\Does the brain experience Pain or does it interprets the pulses from the ganglion ?
I believe the first impulse goes to the ganglion , than it is transmitted via spinal cord to the brain , but the first involuntary retraction stimulus might be local.

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The withdraw reflex does not even involve the brain - it involves the spinal cord. But the actual pain you feel is from the brain.

You may be interested to know that some surgical procedures can be carried out by keeping the patient under hypnosis. The process of hypnotism is kind of related to brain, so feeling of pain definitely involves brain. How the signal is transmitted to brain is well documented.

This is the only scientific book about bioelectricity that I could find but I think it is a good book.

Why I'm not an expert on biophysics and bioelectricity, I think that pain can definitely be explained by biophysics.

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I believe our tissue have 3 sensor deep medium and close to the surface , the sensors are pressure sensors, then there are the temp. sensors. From here on you can apply physics in a biological system, imagine 3 pressure sensors and the signal been additive .

After you get cut by something sharp or burned by something hot is the pain you feel really caused by the brain or is there more to the story?

Click to expand...

Since the original physical limb or appendage is actually gone, such obviously isn't the source of the sensations and the pain in phantom limb scenarios. That said, however, either a fetal or newborn brain surely needs input from a part of the body in order to kick-start slash activate (or even develop?) its representational process for that area. It would take a bizarre clinical or psychological condition indeed for a person to acquire awareness of a non-existent appendage or organ which s/he never possessed (especially a fictional one which the body is not genetically predisposed to grow).

EXCERPT: [...] Their results, reported in the journal Nature Communications, demonstrate that in patients with chronic pain associated with amputation or nerve injury, there are 'crossed wires' in the part of the brain associated with sensation and movement, and that by mending that disruption, the pain can be treated. [...] Approximately 5,000 amputations are carried out in the UK every year, and those with type 1 or type 2 diabetes are at particular risk of needing an amputation. In most cases, individuals who have had a hand or arm amputated, or who have had severe nerve injuries which result in a loss of sensation in their hand, continue to feel the existence of the affected hand as if it were still there. Between 50 and 80 percent of these patients suffer with chronic pain in the 'phantom' hand, known as phantom limb pain. "Even though the hand is gone, people with phantom limb pain still feel like there's a hand there -- it basically feels painful, like a burning or hypersensitive type of pain, and conventional painkillers are ineffective in treating it," said study co-author Dr Ben Seymour, a neuroscientist based in Cambridge's Department of Engineering. "We wanted to see if we could come up with an engineering-based treatment as opposed to a drug-based treatment."

Since the original physical limb or appendage is actually gone, such obviously isn't the source of the sensations and the pain in phantom limb scenarios. That said, however, either a fetal or newborn brain surely needs input from a part of the body in order to kick-start slash activate (or even develop?) its representational process for that area. It would take a bizarre clinical or psychological condition indeed for a person to acquire awareness of a non-existent appendage or organ which s/he never possessed (especially a fictional one which the body is not genetically predisposed to grow).

EXCERPT: [...] Their results, reported in the journal Nature Communications, demonstrate that in patients with chronic pain associated with amputation or nerve injury, there are 'crossed wires' in the part of the brain associated with sensation and movement, and that by mending that disruption, the pain can be treated. [...] Approximately 5,000 amputations are carried out in the UK every year, and those with type 1 or type 2 diabetes are at particular risk of needing an amputation. In most cases, individuals who have had a hand or arm amputated, or who have had severe nerve injuries which result in a loss of sensation in their hand, continue to feel the existence of the affected hand as if it were still there. Between 50 and 80 percent of these patients suffer with chronic pain in the 'phantom' hand, known as phantom limb pain. "Even though the hand is gone, people with phantom limb pain still feel like there's a hand there -- it basically feels painful, like a burning or hypersensitive type of pain, and conventional painkillers are ineffective in treating it," said study co-author Dr Ben Seymour, a neuroscientist based in Cambridge's Department of Engineering. "We wanted to see if we could come up with an engineering-based treatment as opposed to a drug-based treatment."